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New Duggar Family Special Announced For TLC: Amy Duggar King Promises Laughs

By Steph Bazzle
Published on: 05:45 PST, Jun 8, 2017

Counting On is coming back for a new season, but as the family battles lawsuits, loss of sponsors, and public opinion, TLC is trying a new avenue with the extended family: Amy Duggar King and her husband, Dillon, are getting their own special. The Kings have worked on a few media projects of their own, including a podcast and an appearance on another reality show, Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars, but now it appears they’re making it back to TLC, at least for one show.

Currently, the announcement is a single hour-long special — not a series — but it should be noted that Counting On was initially presented as a three-episode event before being extended into several full seasons. While the original Duggar series, 19 Kids & Counting focused on life in an unusually large family with extremely conservative religious beliefs and Counting On has focused on life events as several siblings start courtships, marry, and have kids, the focus of Amy’s special clearly has to take a different angle.

She doesn’t hold the conservative beliefs of her Duggar cousins, adhering to a more mainstream Christianity that allows her to wear pants and permitted kissing before the wedding day, and she’s not raising more than a dozen kids. In fact, in a recent podcast, Amy said that though Duggar fans keep pestering her about pregnancy, she isn’t currently expecting a child and her plans are more relaxed.

Instead, it appears that Amy Duggar King’s special will be about her marriage. Josh Duggar’s scandals knocked 19 Kids & Counting off the air two years ago, preventing Amy and Dillon King from being featured in a wedding special. Radar Online reported that Dillon King asked Duggar fans to push TLC to air the special anyway, but it didn’t happen.

Now, however, Amy King says that TLC was the one to contact her and has asked if she and Dillon are interested in a special. The episode will air June 19.

Amy’s relationship has already been featured on Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars, and she and Dillon King have a podcast on which they discuss their relationship, but it appears there’s more she wants to share with the public.

While Amy’s cousins are returning to TLC next Monday with the season premiere of Counting On, the future of that show seems uncertain. Former sponsors have disassociated themselves with the Duggar family, and now there are new controversies in the works. Some fans were sympathetic when Jill Dillard, Jessa Seewald, Jinger Vuolo, and Joy (still a Duggar at the time of filing) Forsyth sued the city over the release of a police report they say identified them as Josh Duggar’s victims in a series of molestations. Others were less so, saying that Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar were to blame for failing to ensure Josh faced legal repercussions.

When TMZ reported that Josh Duggar would be joining the lawsuit, though, also claiming harm to his career and emotional state from the release of records describing how he molested five minors, much of that sympathy was lost. The fact that Josh is reportedly working his way back into the public eye didn’t help either. Josh is also facing a legal battle of his own, being sued for using another man’s image on an extramarital dating site.

It’s not clear yet how any of this will affect the Duggar family’s continued reality stardom. If Counting On goes off the air, however, TLC may be ready to let Amy Duggar King fill the empty space.

Announcing the special, TLC said it would focus on the couple’s first year of marriage. Whether this will simply show one couple’s normal ups and downs and relationship issues, or whether the effect of Amy’s cousins, their lifestyle, and Josh’s problems will be touched. The TLC preview includes Amy’s 30th birthday party, Amy crying about how hard relationships are, the couple arguing about home decor, and Amy and Dillon King debating how many kids they want. There’s also a hint at what could be a pregnancy announcement.

“So, speaking of a baby…”

Still, it can’t all be serious. Amy promised her Twitter followers laughs.

Do you think Amy Duggar King is prepping for a full new series, and if so, is she hoping to usurp her cousins’ place as the Duggar reality stars? Weigh in with your thoughts in the comments below.

[Featured Image by Amy Duggar King/Instagram]

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